Tag: Motley Crue

Today is the 34th Anniversary of the 1983 US Festival. The US Festivals (US pronounced like the pronoun, not as initials) were two early 1980s music and culture festivals sponsored by Steve Wozniak, formerly of Apple Computer. The first was held Labor Day weekend in September 1982 and the second was Memorial Day weekend in May 1983. The 1982 US Festival was the first major festival since Cal Jam II that was not a charity concert—it was intended to be celebration of evolving technologies; a marriage of music, computers, television and people. That continued in 1983, even though Wozniak had lost millions on the first US Festival. The festival also had large air-conditioned tents featuring the US Festival Technology Exposition— a dazzling display of then-cutting edge computers, software, and electronic music devices. Also making a debut were installations of "out-door rain" - perforated pvc nozzles that sprayed water to fight the fierce hundred degree heat.

I attended Heavy Metal Day in 1983 with my friend Robert and arrived on Saturday May 28 during New Wave Day. There was a sea of cars, miles of them, and thousands of people milling around everywhere. School buses would take you back and forth to the entrance to this new make-shift venue. I do remember shortly after finding a spot to park some guys in a panel truck backed in asking if the spot was taken opposite of us. We said "no", they parked and then opened up the back of the truck, loaded with two kegs and the party was on.

There was small creek within walking distance near by, and we walked over there to cool off since it was close to 100 degrees that day. There was a hillside with a sharp incline on the other side of the creek, and many people scaled (or tried to scale) it during the day and in the time we were there. There was plenty of poison ivy around so you weren't going to catch me scaling anything. I saw a few people walk right through or fall onto poison ivy, I could imagine that probably made the concert the next day really fun. I also remember hearing Oingo Boingo, English Beat and Flock Of Seagulls during the day when we were within the vicinity of the venue.

Steve Wozniak paid for the bulldozing and construction of this new open-air field venue as well as the construction of an enormous state-of-the-art temporary stage at Glen Helen Regional Park near Devore, San Bernardino, California. This site was later to become home to Blockbuster Pavilion—now San Manuel Amphitheater. Apparently the festival stage has resided at the Disneyland theme park in California since 1985 and had operated under various names and functions as the Videopolis dance club, the Videopolis Theatre, and the Fantasyland Theatre. On that day it was soon to have some of the best rockers of the era on it.

As darkness fell and more and more people arrived for Heavy Metal Day, one big night-time Rock Festival within itself started. KMET and KLOS blared from car stereos, as well as music from the cassette decks and boom boxes of the bands we would be hearing the next day. The smell of BBQ's and marijuana billowed into the air. We walked around in this small city of rockers that seemingly extended forever. It definitely was one huge party, with bonfires everywhere and virtually no supervision. We partied that night, and went to sleep in the car eagerly anticipating what was to come the next morning.

We woke up, stretched out from sleeping in odd positions in the car, and made our way the few miles to the entrance to the venue. It was early in the morning, probably 8am or so, and there was already thousands of people waiting to get inside, looking to get as close to the stage as possible. Once we got inside concert goers had layed blankets down, taking claim to their spots. Somehow a few got in, considering there was no coolers, outside food, chairs or towels being allowed. Those with blankets, etc., lasted for awhile, but slowly but surely, as the day progressed, so did the intensity of the crowd. Needless to say, no one was sitting down or laying on a blanket and all of that was swallowed up in this mass of people.

Finally the time had arrived with the first rock act hitting the stage: Quiet Riot. Randy Rhoads (who left to play with Ozzy in 1979) had passed away by now, and Quiet Riot had long since found Carlos Cavazo to play guitar. The Los Angeles metal scene was taking over, and Quiet Riot as well as Motley Crue were the two biggest new bands to come out of L.A. at this time. Quiet Riot was raring up the charts with the "Metal Health" album, which ultimately became the first metal album to go #1 on the Billboard charts. The late Kevin DuBrow instantly got the crowd fired up, and it didn't stop for hours! Heat exhaustion to go around!

"It was the day new wave died and rock n' roll took over" - Vince Neil, in a famous quote regarding the overwhelming attendance on Sunday, "Heavy Metal Day", at the '83 US Festival. It set the single-day concert attendance record for the US with an estimated 375,000 people. Showtime recorded the event and aired a 90-minute special for each day of
the festival, which is where most of this footage comes from. Motley Crue had not yet released "Shout At The Devil", but it was due out soon, and the band performed songs from the album. Motley really was coming into their own at this point and their following was growing and growing nation and worldwide.

Ozzy Osbourne rocked the US Festival with the first live performance with guitarist Jake E. Lee, who shined in this huge first gig. The head dress Ozzy wore during the show was well publicized and photographed, even though it only lasted for a few seconds before he tore it off. Ozzy's band at this time included Jake E. Lee, Bob Daisley on Bass, Tommy Aldridge on drums and Don Airey on keyboards. Ozzy released "Bark At The Moon" later that year.
It was blazing hot during his set, with the crowd looking for the "out-door rain" stations to cool off, before heading back into the madness! The concert organizers actually gave away water to the crowd, something that we would be charged $5 bucks for these days.

Judas Priest hit the stage next and thankfully near the end of it, the temperature started to cool down a bit. The Metal God and the rest of the band were at their peak in 1983, a fully confident unit, effortlessly rocking everyone and everywhere they played. The "Screaming For Vengeance" album was just huge, and when the band played "You've Got Another Thing Coming" the crowd went absolutely fucking nuts!

As Canadian trio Triumph got ready to hit the stage next, the crowd got a second wind, as the temperatures dropped and the rock kept on coming. Rik Emmett, Gil Moore and Mike Levine were ready to put on the show of their life, and they didn't disappoint. The band had a great core of material to work with at this point, and had released the album "Never Surrender" earlier in 1983. Great set as the sun set! The band released a live DVD of the US Festival set back in 2003, so there is all of their full set here. They were smart to retain the rights to the video for their set. Awesome footage:

The Scorpions were up next and just fucking blew doors! They were another band who I really felt were at or close to their peak of impact. Sure, they still released "Love At First Sting" a year later, but played the US Festival with a full arsenal of rock from the "Blackout" album and their past catalog. Just an awesome set!!

Before Van Halen hit the stage, there was a fake UFO flying around. It looked so fake, it just seemed stupid and I didn't really see the point in it, somebody was trying to be creative I guess?

Van Halen received an upfront sum of $1 million to headline the 1983 US Festival. It was then upped to $1.5 million after it was discovered that David Bowie was to be paid $1 million. Van Halen had a clause in their contract that they would be paid more than any other act performing at the festival. In contrast, on New Wave Day, The Clash refused to play unless some donations were made to charities or other such noble causes by Wozniak and some of the other major bands. Before the Clash began their set they made angry comments about the barrio conditions in Los Angeles. After The Clash performed, the DJ began speaking right away and Clash guitarist Mick Jones attacked the DJ, believing he was trying to prevent an encore.

This and The Clash's ironic criticism of the festival in the press conferences and in interviews prior to the event caused an argument backstage between Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth and The Clash singer Joe Strummer. This may have also been started by a comment guitarist Eddie Van Halen made in Rolling Stone magazine one month prior regarding the punk movement ("...that's like what I played in my garage when I was a kid, man."). A clearly intoxicated Roth compounded this rivalry by insulting The Clash on stage early during Van Halen's headlining set with his comment, "I wanna take this time to say that this is real whiskey here... the only people who put iced tea in Jack Daniel's bottles is The Clash, baby!" This was Roth's only mention of The Clash on stage that night. Many people in the audience thought Roth was way too drunk and the show suffered because of it. I stayed longer than most however, as it had been a long, long day. We heard "Happy Trails" as we were heading out. Looking back on the video, I wouldn't really change anything about their performance though, because it was Van Halen history!

Here's the band's full set and some better quality clips of some of the individual song performances:

We after we made our way back to our vehicle, partied a bit and mellowed out while recollecting about what an amazing day it had been we crashed and got ready for the trek back home. My one last memory of US Festival '83 goes like this: I became separted from my friend Rob after hopping out of his vehicle to retrieve something from someone while in line to exit. I then couldn't find his car in the sea of vehicles. Don't ask me why I got out of the car..anyway, I was lucky enough to find a couple of guys who I had met before that lived in Pismo Beach, near my hometown. Yeah, I had to ride in the back seat for hours in a Trans Am with virtually no leg room (my knees were up in my face), and couldn't walk when I got out, but these guys gave me a ride to my front door. Looking back, I can't believe my parents let me go to this show, since I was a sophmore in high school, but I am glad they did. My daughter would certainly not be going away to a music festival as decadent as this one, although they don't do festivals like this in the U.S. anymore. It was insane fun and it was my Woodstock and I'll never forget it!

Here's an Artisan News Report from June of 2010 about that years Ozzfest, where Ozzy, Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Motley Crue reflected on the last time they had all played together...it was at the US Festival:

I preface this post as a lifelong Motley Crue fan, having seen the band multiple times with my first being at the US Festival in 1983, when the band was on absolute fire. I am and have been a Crue fanatic, with the band bringing so many memorable moments to my life and musical passion.

But on July 25th, Motley Crue had a show at the California Mid State Fair in Paso Robles, CA. that became a nightmare for the crowd (and I'm sure for the band as well). No pyro, no stage set, no vocals (Vince just can't really do it anymore) and no great memory for a time stamp of what will probably be the last time seeing the Crue for a majority of the crowd in attendance.

While I understand the complexities of a Motley money grab to play as many shows as possible before the end of the Crue entity, when you schedule three shows in three different states on consecutive nights (regardless of proximity) and something goes wrong, somebody gets screwed, and this audience sure did.

The story was that while ready to take off from the Tacoma airport in route to San Luis Obispo Airport, a small hole was discovered in their plane, causing concern that the aircraft would not properly depressurize. The decision was made to deboard and unload, with another plane to be chartered flying in from Phoenix. This caused a delay of the show, which originally was slated to start with Alice Cooper's set at 7:30pm. The doors didn't end up opening until 8:30, with the start time announced to be 10pm.

The show eventually started at about 10:30pm, with the total pro Alice and his band ripping through a well received (but short) set of hits. Motley however, hit the stage at about 11pm and played a "stripped" down run through of tracks that lasted until midnight. The band seemed lethargic, possibly due to the day they had already dealt with, but there was no explanation on stage about exactly what happened, no apology, and no connection to their fans to appease the disgruntled rockers in the crowd. That was B.S., as was their set.

We already knew Vince can't hit notes and half sings now, but this really took it to a new level. Not having the pyro and dynamic stage set up brought more attention to the band's deficiencies and there were many that night.

The band made it to Billings, Montana for a show the next night, but had another incident just nights later in Salt Lake City.

As far as the "explanation" Nikki Sixx gave on his 'Sixx Sense' radio show some nights later about the Mid State Fair show, I don't believe a 747 can fly into the small San Luis Obispo airport, but that is the spin they are going with on this debacle. Listen to the explanation here: www.sixxsense.com. Here's a photo posted on Nikki's Twitter showing the plane landing in San Luis Obispo. I can't even tell if that is SLO Airport, and if that plane is a 747, it is the largest plane that has ever landed at that airport. I have found no record of that happening anywhere online, but I could be wrong.

This all being said, I am still glad Motley decided to play the show even though it sucked. But that is coming from someone that didn't have to lay down over a $100 bucks for a ticket. Motley have announced another Central California show in Fresno this December at the Save Mart Center, but I haven't decided if I will be going or not. To eliminate this last Motley memory for me, I just may have to.

'The Life, Blood And Rhythm Of Randy Castillo,' a rock documentary produced by Cinema 1 Film & FX and 18 Lights Pictures has been selected to open the Red Nation Film Festival in Beverly Hills, CA. on November 4th.

'The Life, Blood And Rhythm Of Randy Castillo' is the story of the late, legendary drummer who played with Ozzy Osborne, Motley Crue, Lita Ford, and other rock and roll icons of the 1980s and 1990s. The film features superstar interviews, concert footage, home movies and behind-the-scenes video of this bigger-than-life Apache musician whose unshakable passion carried him from the wrong side of the tracks to the top of the charts—only to be taken by cancer at the height of his career. The film is narrated by Queen of Metal, Lita Ford.

“It’s been a magical journey,” said Director Wynn Ponder, “working with Lita and interviewing Randy’s band mates, family and friends, but the real story is about how Randy’s generous spirit never changed, even when his formidable musical talent made him the first internationally famous Apache rock and roll drummer.”

Ponder said, “Randy Castillo was that rare creature known as a ‘good man,’ a confidante and close friend to many ... compassionate and caring with everyone he met. Some interviewees tell stories of Randy’s supernatural powers, which they attribute to his Native American spirituality.”

Part musical legend, part personal journey and part shamanic mythos, The Life, Blood And Rhythm Of Randy Castillo ultimately reveals a seldom-seen layer of humanity behind the glittered walls of the rock industry. For more go to: www.randycastillomovie.com

After his success with capturing the top box office spot last weekend with 'Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa,' a film that grossed around twice its budget with a $32 million opening weekend, www.deadline.com announced that director Jeff Tremaine will next helm 'Dirt,' a feature film that tells the story of 1980's rock band Motley Crue. The film is based on the band’s bestselling autobiography 'The Dirt: Confessions Of The World’s Most Notorious Rock Band,' written by band members Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars with Neil Strauss.

Tremaine originally learned how to direct working with the ‘Jackass’ crew back in the ’90s. He was the running the skateboard magazine ‘Big Brother’ when ‘Jackass’ leader Johnny Knoxville approached him about filming a stunt in which he was tasered. Tremaine gave Knoxville a camera, and ‘Jackass’ took off from there, with Tremaine shooting many of the stunts that made it to the hit TV show.

“I’ve been careful to make this a natural progression,” Tremain said. “I’ve been offered a lot of scripts but Dirt is something I pursued with everything I had. I’ve wanted to make this going back to 2001, when we were just planning the first Jackass movie and I found out that David Gale at MTV Films had just optioned the book. First of all, I had no idea how to make Jackass into a movie, but I said to him, let me direct that movie, too. He said, yeah, of course! He was being sarcastic, because he had the same level of confidence in me as a director as I did at that time. Luckily for me, the movie never got made, and when this project became available, I put everything I had into chasing it and convincing everyone that I am the right guy for it. I really feel I am.”

The film's script is currently being "polished" by 'Californication' writer Tom Kapinos, with casting getting underway, for a shooting start in early 2014.

Fan-filmed video of MÖTLEY CRÜE's kick off to the 'Evening In Hell' recent Las Vegas residency has been posted and can be viewed below. The September 18 concert at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas kicked off the band's second residency at the venue.